Striking gold with Go-Go Fresh Food Cafe

If ever you’re down in South Beach for the day, you should make a quick pit stop at Go-Go Fresh Food Café.

True to its name, the service is quick and the food is fresh and delicious. Tucked out of sight between a laundromat and gym (I had to drive by twice before finding it), the restaurant offers indoor and outdoor seating, along with free parking, a rarity on Miami Beach.

Go-Go’s menu boasts three main options: pies (empanadas), salads and soups. You can order a specialty salad from their menu, or create your own, choosing any of the over 30 “toss-ins.” The soups change daily, and there are 18 different pies to choose from, ranging from classic Argentine beef to spinach, feta and pine nut.

We started off with a cranberry chicken mini salad and an egg mini salad. The lettuce was crisp and fresh. The hard-boiled eggs were perfectly cooked. The other salad was served with chopped pieces of chicken and mandarin oranges and came with plenty of both, uncommon in today’s restaurants.

We topped this off with half a dozen pies between us. They were all warm from the oven and melted in our mouths.

The eggplant parmigiana and shrimp scampi seemed more like the real dishes encased in thin dough blankets. The eggplant was tender and the shrimp was juicy. The Nutella and banana pie was sweet and creamy and the guava and cheese pie didn’t kill my mouth with sugar, unlike its Cuban counterpart.

I ordered strawberry lemonade to go along with my lunch, and although I was expecting something sweeter and less tart, it was refreshing nonetheless.

There were only a few minor problems. The dough was slightly undercooked in some of the pies (which is how I like it, but it can be an issue for some). The dulce de leche and blackberry pie only seemed to have two berries and was overwhelmed by the dulce de leche without the acid to balance it. And when I bit into the Thai peanut chicken pie, it tasted more like boiled peanuts than anything else.

I wish someone had told me about this place sooner. I feel like I’ve struck gold-Go-Go is cheap and the food tastes great. You’re missing out if you don’t give this café a try.

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Students joined hands around Lake Osceola in celebration of Earth Day. The annual event recognizes the importance of preserving the unique environment of Coral Gables. Baron Alloway // Contributing Photographer

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The Miami Hurricane is the student newspaper of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. The newspaper is edited and produced by undergraduate students at UM and is published semi-weekly on Mondays and Thursdays during the regular academic year.